Ambassador Nikki Haley joined me this morning:

Audio:

01-30hhs-haley

Transcript:

HH: I am back with Ambassador Nikki Haley. Good morning, Madam Ambassador. Good to have you back on the Hugh Hewitt Show.

NH: Good morning, Hugh. It’s great to be with you again.

HH: In the aftermath, Madam Ambassador of the murder of Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Georgia, Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross, Georgia, and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah, Georgia. How would you retaliate against the Iranians?

NH: Well, first, I’ll tell you it’s infuriating. And let’s not forget the two Navy SEALs that we also lost. I mean, you know, I know that as a military spouse, we expect America to have our men and women’s backs when they’re overseas, and that didn’t happen. And what, the fact that Biden and everybody is talking about this now, why did it take 160 strikes for them to talk about it? Why did it take for five people to die to talk about it? This could have been dealt with a long time ago. What we need to do is first of all, it’s not about going hard on Iran. It’s about going smart on Iran, because we know Iran is behind all of this. The first thing we need to do is Biden has got to put the sanctions back on Iran. None of this would have happened had he not lifted them. He fueled all of the money, all of the proxies going into this to allow this to happen. China’s given Iran billions by importing their oil. That’s the first thing. The second thing is we should take out any of the facilities where the missiles are coming from. Take out those production sites. Take, so that we know that they can’t go and shoot missiles at our men and women. And then we need to be strategic on this. Take out a couple of IRGC members that are making these decisions. Iran doesn’t care about whether they lose fighters or not. They’ll just get more. They don’t necessarily care about whether they lose missiles. They’ll just buy more. What they do care about is if they lose their money, and if they lose their leaders, and that’s what we need to focus on.

HH: Earlier in the program, David Drucker of the Dispatch suggested we hit the drone factories inside of Iran. Senator Cotton has called for striking targets inside of Iran. On that target list, many people have suggested the refineries. Would you strike targets inside of Iran, Madam Ambassador?

NH: You know, I would go after the leadership. I think you can hit those targets, but the goal is how do you do this in a way that’s strong that prevents further war. That’s the goal, is you always want to prevent further war. If you take out the leadership making these decisions, you are in essence chilling them the same way that we did with Soleimani, the same way that you do. When you take those out, you’re actually really making them mute when it comes to doing anything. At this point, we should expect more increased strikes. So I do think taking those out in Iraq and Syria where we’re seeing that come from. Any of those places, we should take that out. But I would focus on sanctions, and I would focus on the IRGC leadership.

HH: Now Madam Ambassador, you mentioned Soleimani. President Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani when he landed in Iraq. How do you expect your decision would differ, and your decision making process would differ from that of the former President if you were, either of you in the White House?

NH: Well, I think first, you have to get in front of these things. You know, I mean, I think that what’s important is it was right to go and get out of the Iran deal. I worked with the President in doing that and went and got the information to tell him that it was the right thing to do. But it was also right to go and decimate Iran’s economy. When Biden went and tried to fall all over himself to get back into the Iran deal, that was a problem. The other thing I’ll tell you, Hugh, the big part of this is it’s the style in which you do it. I disagree with the fact that Trump went and praised Hezbollah after they went in and called them smart after they went into Israel and murdered all those people. I disagree with the fact that he says he writes love letters with Kim Jung Un. I disagree with the fact that he congratulated the Chinese Communist Party on their 70th anniversary. We don’t congratulate dictators and enemies. We congratulate our friends. I disagree with the fact that he praised President Xi a dozen times after China gave us COVID. I disagree with the fact that I had to sit down with him and tell him to stop this bromance with Putin when he was like being way too nice to him. I don’t agree with that. You have to go and tell countries what we expect of them. It’s hugely important. The other thing that I did that I would follow through on is after we moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I was furious. I was happy to take on that fight at the U.N., but I was furious. And I went to my staff, and I told them to put a book together. I said I want you to list all 193 countries. I want the second column to be the percentage of times they voted with the U.S. and against the U.S. And the third column was how much foreign aid we give them. I took that book, and I gave it to President Trump. And he lost his mind. He’s flipping pages, and he’s yelling out countries. And what I told him then is stop trying to buy friends. Stop paying off enemies. That doesn’t work. When I am president, we will no longer give money to countries that hate America. Last year, we gave $80 billion dollars in foreign aid. We gave it to Iraq that harbored terrorists that tried to kill our soldiers. We gave it to Zimbabwe, the most anti-American African country there is. We gave it to Belarus, who’s holding hands with Russia as they invade Ukraine. We gave money to Cuba, who we named a state sponsor of terrorism. And the one that makes me sick to my stomach, Hugh, we gave money to China. How weak do we look? We’ve got to start being smart. This is not about bluster and what you say. It’s about how smart you are and how you handle the enemies that want to hurt us.

HH: Now Madam Ambassador, your base case, as I understand it, is that you will beat President Biden, and Former President Trump will not. Would you explain why that is to this audience?

NH: Well, first of all, I think that, you know, there will a woman president in America. It’s either going to be me, or it’s going to be Kamala Harris. And I don’t want a Kamala Harris for president. So the first thing we have to understand is Trump cannot beat Biden in an election. That’s a fact. We know that. Look at Iowa. Look at New Hampshire. He doesn’t win independents. No one can win a general election if you don’t have independents. He doesn’t win suburban women. He has lost the Republicans who don’t like his style. Not only that, 75% of Americans say they don’t want a rematch between Biden and Trump. The majority of Americans disapprove of Trump and disapprove of Biden. Both of these men put us trillions of dollars in debt that our kids are never going to forgive us for. And are we really going to say that our only choice is to have two guys in their 80s? We can do better than that. You look at all those general election polls, he does not beat Biden. You look at those same general election polls I’m in, I defeat Biden by up to 17 points. Do you know what that means? That’s not just the presidency, that’s the House, that’s the Senate, that’s governorships.

HH: Does this argument work with…does that argument work with undecideds in the Republican primaries coming up in South Carolina and Michigan?

NH: Yes, and it worked with undecideds in New Hampshire and Iowa as well. They want to make America normal again. That’s the number one thing that everybody wants to do. And they know that we can’t afford to lose this general election. And what I’ll tell all your listeners, don’t complain about what happens in a general election if you don’t play in this primary. It matters. And look, we’re going to be okay. I have faith in America. But Donald Trump lost in 2018. He lost in 2020. He lost in 2022. What makes you think a fourth try is going to make any difference? We have to start saying okay, do like I did. I voted for Donald Trump twice. This is not personal for me. I was proud to serve America in his administration. But I don’t want my kids to live like this. And we need somebody who can put in a solid eight years and get us back on track. And that’s what I’m determined to do.

HH: Madam Ambassador, let’s move beyond South Carolina. Everyone’s focused on that, and I know you’ve got to get above 40% there to feel that it’s a victory. But what about Michigan, which is on the 27th, just days after South Carolina? What does your organization look there like? And then on Super Tuesday, I’m going to study Virginia and North Carolina closest, because they are states that are swing states. How does Haley, Inc. work in Michigan, Northa Carolina, and Virginia?

NH: Well, our teams are right now working on those states now. I’m focused on South Carolina. So I’m not a political pundit. That’s not the focus that I have. Our goal has always been how do we continue to grow? We started with 14 people in this race, and we are now a two-person race. We got rid of the rest of the fellas. We had 2% in Iowa. We ended with 20%. We went to New Hampshire. We got 43%. Now Hugh, what does that mean? Trump did not get 43% as an incumbent? Think about that. He can’t win a general. So we got 43%, and now we’re going into South Carolina. I have a 76% approval rating. We had a thousand people in Charleston. We had 1,500 people in Greenville. We had 800 people in Conway recently. I mean, everybody’s getting involved. They’re getting engaged. And we’ve got a month to go and show them that yes, I was a good governor, but I can also be a great president.

HH: Madam Ambassador, in 1976 when he was behind, Ronald Reagan named a vice presidential running mate from Pennsylvania, Senator Schweiker. Will you consider naming a running mate early?

NH: I haven’t up until this point, only because you know, we’re focused on the state that is at hand and taking it one day at a time. The other thing is I think that, you know, the press would want to just hit at it the whole time. So you know, I want to make sure that when we pick a vice president, we pick someone who’s strong, we pick a good partner, and we pick someone who I can trust. And it’s not going to be about gender. It’s not going to be about race. It’s not going to be about location. It’s going to be what do we need to do to make sure that we have a real strong partnership that can focus on getting our country where we need to be with the economy, getting back to the basics with education, making sure that we secure our border with no more excuses. We have got to do that. Bringing law and order back to our country, and making sure that we prevent war.

HH: Now partisans like me, and I’m a Republican, we worry about down ticket races like Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, Kerri Lake in Arizona. Why would you be better than the former President in getting those people elected?

NH: I mean, first of all, look at it. Every one of those polls, I win every single swing state. Every single one. And when you win by double digits like I do, you bring everybody with you. Can you imagine if we have a majority in the House, if we have a majority in the Senate, if we win governorships all the way down to school board? That is what we’re trying to do. This is about making sure we win. We have to win. We can’t fix anything if we don’t win. And so that’s what, you know, we’ll focus on. And the reason why I pick people up is they’re tried of the chaos. We hear it every day. It’s not that they don’t think, you know, I think President Trump was the right president at the right time. They’re tired of the chaos. And chaos follows Trump.

HH: Now Madam Ambassador, the key question. If you’re the nominee, will you invite the former President to give the keynote in Milwaukee?

NH: Oh, of course. No, of course. Like this isn’t about shunning him. This is about just saying we need a new generational conservative leader. I have no personal issues with Donald Trump.

HH: Now Bret Stephens wrote yesterday, “Let’s face it. The longer Nikki stays in, the more it helps Joe Biden.” Do you agree with that?

NH: Not at all. I mean, first of all, we don’t do coronations in America. Let’s keep in mind you have to have 1,215 delegates. Donald Trump has 32. I have 17. Only two states have voted. We’ve got 48 states and more territories to go. This is, when has anyone gotten out, out of two states? This is us going in for the long haul. I don’t care what the political class says. We are not going to listen to the political class. I didn’t listen to them when I ran against the longest-serving legislator in a primary in South Carolina. I didn’t listen to them when I ran against an attorney general, a lieutenant governor, a popular Congressman and a state senator for governor as a Tea Party candidate. I’m certainly not going to listen to them now. We have a country to save, and I’m not going to stop until we do that.

HH: Last question, Madam Ambassador. I meant to ask this the last time you were on. I meant to ask it at the NBC debate. You are a military spouse. You know better than most that we have a military recruitment crisis. Why do we have a military recruitment crisis?

NH: The reason we have a military recruitment crisis is for the first, typically, when you look at those that we recruit, we’re down 25%. Typically, 80% of those recruits come from military families. And for the first time, Hugh, parents and grandparents are telling their kids not to do it. And why is that happening? It’s happening for a couple of reasons. One, because we don’t take care of the veterans that we have. 35,000 are homeless. One in three suffer from PTSD or thoughts of suicide. We lose 22 heroes a day to suicide. And the average wait time to get a doctor’s appointment at the VA is 29 days. So you’ve got to take care of those who take care of you. The second reason is they don’t think America’s got their back. Why would anyone send their child to be in the military when 160 strikes have hit our men and women? We have dozens injured. We’ve lost people, and the president of the United States is doing nothing about it. You have to look at, and then, look at the Department of Defense now. My husband, I can tell you, they are not focused on the threats of the future. They’re focused on all these programs that don’t matter. I mean, for God’s sake, they have got to stop these gender pronoun classes that are in my military. It’s demoralizing them. And get back to the focus of what we need. We’ve got too many generals focusing on past wars – land, air, and sea. They’ve got to focus on future threats – artificial intelligence, cyber, space, hypersonic missiles, submarines. That’s what we need to have going forward.

HH: Madam Ambassador, thank you for joining me. Keep coming back. www.nikkihaley.com, I believe, is the website. Thank you, Madam Ambassador.

NH: Thanks so much, Hugh. Great to be with you.

End of interview.